This album came to me without any accompanying information, so the first thing I did was pop it into the CD player to see what it was all about. What it's about is an interesting mix of techno and jazz, using the drum and bass
backgrounds that Roni Size or Crystal Method use, but overlaying them with jazz samples to create a unique, but highly listenable, sound.

"Mocean Worker" is Adam Dorn, jazz bassist, producer, and part owner with his father Joey Dorn, of 32 Records, a jazz label that owns the rights to nearly 700 records from the defunct Landmark label. I'm sure most, if not all, of the samples came from there.

Speaking with Adam, he revealed that this album came about by mistake. we actually put together most of the tracks while working with a French musician to help relieve the stress of the job. When a friend heard them, he said "You know you have an album here," and thus "Mocean Worker" was born. Listening to this album, I constantly hear hints of familiar sounds, but am just not knowledgeable enough to pinpoint exactly who or what they are, except for Mahalia Jackson on "Summertime/Sometimes I Feel like A Motherless Child," and Slam Stewart on "Son Of Slam." That's only because Adam told me, after I
asked if it referred to the infamous "Son of Sam." Luckily Adam couldn't see my red face.

This album is truly something different, and is liable to open up new vistas
for the techno/drum & bass field, which has been pretty much been the
playground of the dance and aggro crowd. While I won't discuss the cuts at length I do want to mention a few that stand out.

"American Tabloid" is inspired by the book of the same name, and it, along with the next cut, "The Mission," both have a "film noir" feel to them - a lively beat laid over dark undertones. The latter is almost like a Philip Marlowe detective story put to music. The steamy sax track and clarinet (I think) line suggests something wicked is going down.

The saying "your mind is working overtime," is what "Overtime" brings to mind - like an overactive imagination when you're all alone in the house and reading a scary book. Little sounds that hint at "something," then a pause as you're thinking "Nah, it's nothing," then it starts again.

The most recognizable piece is Mahalia doing Gershwin's "Summertime," with what sounds like a the cry of some beast in the background. "Somanyangles" has a space feel to it, and reminded me of the "DJ? Acucrack" concert I saw not long ago.

The final track, "Snakestheme," for some reason reminded me of the character "Snake" Pliskin from the movies "Escape From New York" and "Escape From L.A." Wandering the streets of a deserted NYC or L.A., with heart pounding at 120 beats per minute, while the clock is ticking on his own personal time bomb. I'm sure that's not what Adam had in mind, but then that's the fun of this kind of music - the pictures you paint with it. So wander through your brainforest and make your own home movies with the help of the "Mocean Worker."